Main Review
Battery Life
The battery life on these earphones was great lasting 11hrs and 11 minutes in my contentious play torturer test and charging from dead to full in just slightly over 1hr and 30 minutes. You definitely won’t need to worry about these earphones dying on you during a run since they are packing some of the best battery life in any earphones I’ve ever used, most others I’ve used have a 4-6hr battery life so the XFree earphones crush anything I’ve used. Their amazing battery life mixed with how quickly they charge means I’m giving the battery portion of these earphones a solid 5/5.
Durability/Build Quality
The only advertised protection that these earphones are packing is a IPX5 rating meaning they are rated to withstand splashing from water and light water jets but they aren’t rated to withstand full submerged in water, so lets put their rating to the test by moving the earphones through a running water faucet. Before you get the earphones wet though make sure the flap that covers the charging port is close, leaving this open will make the earphones not water-resistant.
And they still work! While splash resistance isn’t as amazing as full submerge resistance it is still impressive any time electronics get wet and survive like nothing happened. I will note that for a few minutes after getting wet the earphones sounded muffled due to water in the speaker grill but after about 10 minutes sound returned to normal and they work great.
As for build quality these earphones are pretty impressive, the earphone housing feels like its made completely out of metal and feels very solid, the ear tips and ear hooks are made out of some sort of silicone feeling material and they are extremely flexible and fit in my ear very well without feeling like they are going to rip or tear, the cord is rubberized but manages not to snag on clothes or skin and feels like it won’t be damaged from bending, the control/battery housing is made of plastic but the plastic is very solid and it has a rubberized coating making it feel more premium than most plastic objects.
The only part of these earphones that don’t feel as premium as everything else is the buttons they’re a shinny-er cheaper feeling plastic, they don’t feel bad necessarily but they feel below everything else when it comes to quality, they are still quite clicky though so the internals are still premium it’s just the buttons themselves that aren’t.
Overall I give the durability/build quality of these earphones a 4.5/5.
Comfort
I’ll start this portion by stating I personally have never been a fan of wearing in ear earphones in general, I’ve never found a pair that felt like they fit perfect in my ears and while this is still true with the XFree they are one of the more comfortable earphones I’ve tried.
One thing I do love about these is that the ear tips and ear hooks are two separate pieces, I personally use the medium tips and small hooks and they fit pretty dang well for me so always make sure to experiment with the different sizes to find what works best for you.
These earphones are extremely stable in my ears I never had a problem with them falling out even while moving around.
These are very comfortable earphones, they’re extremely light and weight wise I was unable to feel these earphones on my ears, my only complaint in the comfort department was I could feel them in my ear, it’s not that they felt extremely uncomfortable but when wearing them I could feel the ear tips pressing against my ears and they rub my ears slightly when I put them in or remove them but this isn’t a problem I’ve only had with these it seems to happen with most in ear earphones I use and is the main reason I prefer over the ear headphones to in ear earphones.
Overall I rate the comfort 4/5 they aren’t the most comfortable pari of earphones I’ve worn but they are still comfortable to wear.
Sound quality is next!
You can buy the Tribit XFree Color Wireless
